Move over Willy Wonka. A life-size extravaganza to rival Charlie’s beloved Chocolate Factory is bound for Singapore. Sweet lovers will be in seventh heaven when they visit this confectionery wonderland on 22 – 24 August at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre.

It’s been dreamed up by the world famous pastry chef team of Christian Escribà (among other things he created a giant teddy bear from 40,000 chocolate bon-bons in Europe) and Patricia Schmidt (created wearable chocolate hats for race day at Ascot). Together they are bringing this fantasy world – a place to taste, explore and retreat from 21 century – to Singapore.

It’s fair to say Fantasìa by Escribà will be the world’s first-ever experiential extravaganza and fantasy world made almost entirely of chocolate, sugar and pastries. In the words of Christian, himself a fourth general pastry chef who runs the 107 years old Barcelona icon Pasteleria Escribà ‘we have a vision to create something like when we were kids’.

Highlights at the event will include a magical entrance – with candy floss clouds, and a two metre high full moon made of confectionery, complete with blinking eyes; a real life Baobab tree with real chocolate mint leaves, surrounded by life-sized safari animals fashioned out of chocolate, meringue and sugar elements; an eight-metre tall, multi-tiered cake and a luxury boutique to buy beautiful shoes and caramel rings, all edible. Let’s not forget the six metre giraffe and eight metre Merlion. Visitors have four hours to see and taste it all.

We think this show will be a sell-out – not only because you get to taste as you go, interact with actors and watch performances but because you can learn too – at chocolate, sugar fondant, caramel and pastry master classes. There will be over 30 confection masterpieces of varying shapes and sizes spread across an exhibition space equivalent to two soccer pitches.